Valley Recruits

[Da Coach]

Indiana State just picked up another big man- Dearon Tucker, a 6'10", 240 pound sophomore forward transfer from Oregon State.
As a freshman in 2019-20, he averaged 0.6 ppg and 0.6 rpg. This past season, as a sophomore, he averaged 2.7 ppg and 1.7 rpg.
https://twitter.com/thatboy_tuck/sta...42772570673154

https://verbalcommits.com/players/dearon-tucker

https://osubeavers.com/sports/mens-b...on-tucker/8124

[PhiAlphaBoy]

Oregon State just picked up another big man- Dearon Tucker, a 6'10", 240 pound sophomore forward transfer from Oregon State.
As a freshman in 2019-20, he averaged 0.6 ppg and 0.6 rpg. This past season, as a sophomore, he averaged 2.7 ppg and 1.7 rpg.

https://twitter.com/thatboy_tuck/status/1391542772570673154

https://verbalcommits.com/players/dearon-tucker

https://osubeavers.com/sports/mens-b...on-tucker/8124

I know you just had a typo but you meant to say Indiana State picked up Tucker.

[Da Coach]

Good article in the Bloomington Pantagraph summarizing personnel changes on each MVC team-

https://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/basketball/men/watch-now-transfer-madness-enters-mvc-basketball-since-arch-madness-ended/article_4f28d09d-bf2b-59ed-8320-3615be7351f7.html

[Da Coach]

Illinois State lands a new 2021 recruit- Ryan Schmitt, a 6'10" sophomore forward from Des Moines Area Community College, a Division II junior college in Boone, Iowa.
Schmitt averaged 11.8 ppg, 7.0 rpg for DMACC, which was 21-5 this past season.

https://verbalcommits.com/players/ryan-schmitt

[Da Coach]

2021 MVC commits-
Bradley- Connor Hickman, Mikey Howell, Terry Roberts, Maxime Ekono, Malevy Leons, Zek Montgomery
Drake- Connor Enright, Tucker DeVries, Ayo Akinwole
Evansville- Blake Sisley, Blaise Beauchamp, Troy Boynton, Antoine Smith, Jr., Preston Phillips
Illinois State- Mark Freeman, Julian Samuels, Kendall Lewis, Elijah Williams
Indiana State- Xavier Bledson, Cameron Henry, Simon Wilbar, Cameron Crawford, Quimari Peterson, Zach Hobbs, Dearon Tucker
Loyola- Ben Schwieger, Ty Johnson, Ryan Schwieger, Chris Knight, Will Smythe (w/o), Saint Thomas
Missouri State- Issac Haney, Donovan Clay, Jaylen Minnett
UNI- Michael Duax, Chase Courbat, Landon Wolf
SIU- Scottie Ebube, Troy D'Amico, Foster Wonders, Ben Coupet, Jr.
Valparaiso- Cameron Palesse , Darius DeAviero, Trey Woodyard, Keyondre Young, Kevion Taylor, Trev Anderson, Thomas Kithier, Joe Hedstrom, Preston Ruedinger

[PhiAlphaBoy]

There are ratings sites/services that rank the top recruiting classes in the nation. Any idea how Bradley's recruiting class would rank in the above Valley list?

[Da Coach]

There are ratings sites/services that rank the top recruiting classes in the nation. Any idea how Bradley's recruiting class would rank in the above Valley list?

There are no reliable sites that I've found that rate recruiting classes every year for the MVC or for any midmajor conference.

The only site I know of that compares MVC teams is Verbalcommits.com. They rate teams' players based on the average number of stars they received on these 3 recruiting sites- Rivals, Scout, and ESPN. Here is Elijah Childs-

https://verbalcommits.com/players/elijah-childs

He got a 3.0 because of the 3-star rating that Elijah got on Rivals, though Scout and ESPN did not give him any rating.

Note their 2-star ranking for Malevy Leons-

https://verbalcommits.com/players/malevy-leons

He got only a rating of 2.0 (their minimum) because he was not listed on any of the recruiting sites.

Here is how they compare the MVC teams according to Verbalcommits.com. Again, this includes all players on Bradley's roster-

https://verbalcommits.com/conferences/missouri-valley

However, their recruit ranking is flawed. First, it averages all the teams' recruits regardless of their year (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, grad), and any recruit that the recruiting sites overlook automatically get only 2-stars. Thus, quality recruits like Leons, Ekono, Ja'Shon Henry, etc, are always under-rated.
All of Bradley's players have gotten 2-stars on Verbalcommits, thus Bradley's average is 2.00.

[PhiAlphaBoy]

Thanks DC. I guess we'll have to wait and hope someone does some research and writes an article on the upcoming season to get a feel. I'm hoping this will prove to be Wardle's best recruiting class when we're able to take a look back in a few years.

[Da Coach]

Illinois State gets a commitment off the transfer portal- Liam McChesney, a redshirt freshman 6'10" forward transferring from Utah State. He is originally from British Columbia, Canada. In his one season of play at Utah State in 2020-21 he played in only 3 of the team's first 5 games before suffering a season-ending broken leg. In the 3 games he played, he averaged 0.7 ppg and 1.0 rpg. He shot 25% from the floor, and was 0-3 from three.

https://goredbirds.com/news/2021/6/2/mens-basketball-mens-basketball-adds-liam-mcchesney.aspx

https://verbalcommits.com/players/liam-mcchesney

https://utahstateaggies.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/liam-mcchesney/8146

[Da Coach]

One addition to the 2021 Illinois State recruiting class- 6'6" combo guard Elijah Williams, from Providence Christian Academy in Georgia.
According to Bloomington Pantagraph ISU beat writer Jim Benson, he will be a walk-on.
https://twitter.com/highlevel000/sta...53079195975680

https://verbalcommits.com/players/elijah-williams

And Indiana State picks up a late 2021 commitment from Micah Thomas, a 6'0" freshman point guard from Northwest Florida State College. He would have 4 years to play at Indiana State.

https://verbalcommits.com/players/micah-thomas-ok

https://www.nwfraiders.com/sports/mbkb/2020-21/bios/thomas_micah_ff59

[Da Coach]

2021 MVC commits (links embedded in names)-
Bradley- Connor Hickman, Mikey Howell, Terry Roberts, Maxime Ekono, Malevy Leons, Zek Montgomery, Sam Hennessy (w/o), Cade Hardtke (w/o)
Drake- Connor Enright, Tucker DeVries, Ayo Akinwole
Evansville- Blake Sisley, Blaise Beauchamp, Troy Boynton, Antoine Smith, Jr., Preston Phillips
Illinois State- Mark Freeman, Julian Samuels, Kendall Lewis, Elijah Williams
Indiana State- Xavier Bledson, Cameron Henry, Simon Wilbar, Cameron Crawford, Quimari Peterson, Zach Hobbs, Dearon Tucker, Micah Thomas
Loyola- Ben Schwieger, Ty Johnson, Ryan Schwieger, Chris Knight, Will Smythe (w/o), Saint Thomas
Missouri State- Issac Haney, Donovan Clay, Jaylen Minnett
UNI- Michael Duax, Chase Courbat, Landon Wolf
SIU- Scottie Ebube, Troy D'Amico, Foster Wonders, Ben Coupet, Jr., Reece Johnson (walk-on)
Valparaiso- Cameron Palesse , Darius DeAviero, Trey Woodyard, Keyondre Young, Kevion Taylor, Trev Anderson, Thomas Kithier, Joe Hedstrom, Preston Ruedinger, Kobe King

[Da Coach]

Valparaiso lands another late 2021 commitment from a 4th Big Ten transfer.
Previously, 7' Wisconsin center Joe Hedstrom, 6'3" Wisconsin guard Trevor Anderson, and 6'8" Michigan State forward Thomas Kithier transferred to Valpo.
Now a former Wisconsin starting guard, 6'4" Kobe King has committed to Valparaiso, taking their final scholarship.
https://www.nwitimes.com/sports/coll...me-top-story-1

Kobe King is an interesting story. He was a highly rated recruit out of high school in 2017 (4-stars), and he was named Wisconsin Mr. Basketball and the Gatorade Player of the Year in the state as he lead his high school team to a state championship. He played 2½ seasons at Wisconsin, starting the first 19 games of his junior season (2019-20), averaging 10.0 ppg, before he suddenly left the team midway through the 2019-20 season. He committed to Nebraska and intended to transfer, but then backed out and sat out the 2020-21 season.-
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...7992/kobe-king

Then in January of 2021, he signed with an agent and entered the NBA D-League draft intending to play professionally, but he was not drafted, and never did play professionally. He had to request a waiver from the NCAA because he had signed with an agent. But apparently, because the NBA D-League and some pro leagues were shut down last season due to Covid, the NCAA eventually did grant the rather generous waiver for him to return to college to play.

Valparaiso's 2021-22 roster already shows 17 players, and it will be 18 when King is added-

https://www.valpoathletics.com/mbasketball/roster/?view=list

[PhiAlphaBoy]

I've always thought Lottich to be a pretty good coach who's been able to do more with less. If he can find a way to mesh these new players and personalities into his system they may just have a top 3 MVC team next season.

[Da Coach]

I've always thought Lottich to be a pretty good coach who's been able to do more with less. If he can find a way to mesh these new players and personalities into his system they may just have a top 3 MVC team next season.

I have thought Valparaiso relies too much on 3-point shots. They were the worst 3-point shooting team in the Valley last year by far, yet they attempted more 3-pointers than any other team except Evansville, who were the top 3-point shooting team (Evansville attempted 637, Valpo 635).
3-point team stats- http://www.espn.com/mens-college-bas...oints/group/18

They won some games they shouldn't have when they got hot, but they also lost games they might have won with a more well-rounded offense. They were 7-11 in 2020-21, but then lost more players transferring out than any other MVC team, and saw more than half their offensive production leave. They also lost their top rebounder and top 2 assist leaders. They have 10 new incoming players (see post 3 spots above this one), 5 freshmen and 5 transfers, so this season will be a real test for Lottich.
Here is their 2021-22 roster. Check out all the new players Lottich will have to try to mesh with the returning players.

https://www.valpoathletics.com/mbasketball/roster/

[Da Coach]

I don't know if Bradley is recruiting this kid, but probably a lot of high majors will be. He is a teammate on the same team in France as Bradley player Maxime Ekono played for this past season.
Some are calling 7'2" Victor Wembanyama the "best prospect in the world" and a certain high NBA lottery pick

https://twitter.com/caine_purnell/status/1411683538123083782

https://twitter.com/matt_pennie/status/1411852005732192257

https://twitter.com/ZachMilner13/sta...44760214044673 (Maxime Ekono #12)

https://www.proballers.com/basketball/team/13471/u18-nanterre-92/2019